Boot Bay is 3 miles (5 km) west of Kagalaska Strait on the south coast of Adak Island, the site of intensive military activity from 1942 to 1997, near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands, about 443 miles (713 km) southwest of Unalaska and 11 miles (18 km) southeast of the community of Adak, Alaska. The Aleutian chain extends 1180 miles (1,900 km) westward in an arc from the Alaska Peninsula to the Kamchatka Peninsula, occupying a band of latitude between 51 and 55 degrees north. Adak Island is rugged and mountainous and has numerous small bays and indentations that are exposed to high velocity winds and large swells from the Pacific. The name Adak is from the Unangas Aleut word ‘adaq’ meaning ‘father’. Boot Bay is bounded by Elf Island to the west and Boot Point to the east, and the name is descriptive of the point and was first published in 1944. The rocks forming Boot Bay represent the Finger Bay Volcanics from the Eocene age and are typical for an intraoceanic magmatic arc consisting of basalt flows, tuff, flow breccia, intruded by large masses of gabbro, dikes and sills, and small masses of rhyolite. Most of the Aleutian Islands were covered by extensive ice caps during the late Wisconsin glaciation and are mostly responsible for the present-day landscape.
The Aleutian Islands are the traditional territory of the Unangas Aleut people, and Adak Island was once heavily populated. The chain separates the North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea which support abundant populations of pelagic fish, birds, and marine mammals, notably harbor seals, ringed seals, northern fur seals, large and small whales, porpoises, sea otters, and sea lions. There is no evidence for human occupation of the Central Aleutians before 6,000 years ago; however, there is archaeological evidence of early humans inhabiting the southern coast of Adak Island as early as 5,286 to 4,970 years ago, and the upland areas from 4,239 to 3,446 years ago. In 1741, Vitus Bering explored the Aleutian archipelago for Czar Peter the Great, and this voyage was soon followed by Russian entrepreneurs eager to exploit the territory for what appeared to be an almost unending supply of sea otter pelts. By 1830, Russian traders regularly visited Adak to conscript local inhabitants to hunt sea otters. Adak Island was eventually abandoned as the Aleutian Island hunters followed the Russian fur trade eastward. In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, and commercial hunting of sea otters intensified nearly exterminating the Aleutian otter populations by the beginning of the 20th century.
The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombed Unalaska Island and occupied Attu and Kiska islands in June 1942. In September 1942, the U.S. military began construction of a base on Adak Island that would eventually allow U.S. forces to mount a successful offensive against the Japanese-held islands. After the war, Adak was developed as a naval air station, playing an important role during the Cold War as a submarine surveillance center. At its peak, the station housed over 6,000 personnel and their families, and had all the amenities of a large town. In 1990, a new $18-million hospital was built. In 1994, the base was downsized, and both family housing and schools were closed. The station was deactivated in 1997 as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. In 2004, the Aleut Corporation acquired the abandoned facilities and structures in varying states of deterioration under a land transfer agreement with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Defense. A portion of the island remains within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and is managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Today, Adak has a population of roughly 170 people and provides an airport with scheduled jet service from Anchorage, fueling port and crew transfer facility for foreign fishing fleets. Read more here and here. Explore more of Boot Bay and Adak Island here:
